Large grocery stores of the type commonly found in American metropolitan areas have many features in common. One such feature is the employment of four wheeled wire frame cart provided for customer use in shopping. These carts vary in specific dimensions, according to manufacturer, but all possess an overwhelming similarity in construction which permits horizontal nesting of carts in a linear array. Another common feature of these supermarkets is in the arrangement of the various departments which vary little in composition. Inevitably, the produce department is encountered first in the normal traffic pattern encouraged by the layout of these stores. Following the perimeter of the typical store, meats are often encountered next, then the baked goods or dairy products, a deli section, fresh seafood. The interior of the market, which is often traversed last, is comprised of aisles of shelving storing the non perishable goods, canned food, bulk items, et cetera.
It is a necessary if not sufficient condition of horizontally nesting four wheeled wire frame carts that the interior of the cart be unobstructed so that the front of one may fit into another via the hinged rear panel. Any horizontal division of the interior of the cart is thus effectively prohibited. Having obtained the use of one such cart, the shopper typically encounters perishable foods first: fruits and vegetables if not baked goods and dairy products, ahead of the heavier and generally more rigid items such as canned goods, beverages, detergents, etc. Having placed the perishable goods in the cart first, the customer is faced with positioning the latter items in the cart without crushing the perishable goods. This may indeed occasion exercise of the shopper's ingenuity but it also occasions pure inconvenience: it is necessary to remove the perishable items placed first in the cart and replace the same goods back upon the heavier and more rigid goods encountered later.
The arena of improvements concerned with grocery carts is not vacant. Many devices for the holding of grocery lists, advertisements and other paraphernalia are found in the form of U.S. patents, all in conjunction with the standard construction four wheeled wire frame grocery cart. A vertical pivoted divider has been patented. A shelf intended to fit on the handle of these carts has been patented. A special bag fitting in the cart has been patented. A collapsible horizontal shelf with an adjustable vertical height regulated by means of a chain and pulley has been patented, but never sold, to the applicant's knowledge. And, finally, a plastic tray fitting under the basket of a cart, directly above the wheels, has been disclosed by a U.S. patent. Among all these contrivances and contraptions, there exists no means whatsoever for obtaining a horizontal division of the basket interior of a standard four wheeled wire frame grocery cart that provides a simple and convenient means of protecting a lower level of perishables in the cart from the crush of bulk items placed above.